I suppose it's hard to nit-pick a futuristic and fantastic techonology, but why would it make any difference if the paint was dry or not? If you can turn a human into a living painting, it shouldn't be affected by the stiffness of the paint.

The assassin resembles the Batman villian Two-Face, who also uses a coin to make decisions.

The Doctor also uses coins to make decisions sometimes. Admittedly he usually cheats...

OK, reread this one on the grounds that I couldn't remember a thing about it...turns out there was a good reason for this. I still can't remember a thing about it, and I've only just finished it. Ah well. Luckily I took notes.

'Reigns' when it should be 'reins'...tut tut.

The fact that everything he does is coin-tossingly random makes Solarin 'the most professional, feared, efficient, and expensive assassin in the business'?? Doesn't it slow him up tossing a coin or suchlike every time? Not to mention make him rather conspicuous? And how, exactly, does he choose between three queues by tossing a coin?

The Doctor accepts his Companions' definition of the Canvine as not 'people'! Someone smash his head onto the TARDIS console so he turns into Eccy, who'd NEVER put up with that sort of racism!

'[Sam] shuddered, reminded immediately of Kursaal, years ago, and the werewolf-life Jax. And deeper, somewhere within, there was another thought, a memory trying to break loose' - er, what was it, then?

"I could break you in half as easy as sneeze" - firstly, it should be 'as easily', secondly, the Doctor shouldn't be making stupid violent threats, and thirdly...since when has he had super-strength? (OR can hear ultrasonics, 'way above the frequency of human hearing'?)

So the Doctor and Sam go to question a painting's owners about the fact a missing person has turned up in a picture...and then they can't be bothered to actually ask any questions? Since when has the Doc allowed himself to be given the brush-off?

Assassins are issued with trackers that GO OFF LIKE ALARM CLOCKS when they find the target? Yeah, THAT won't raise any suspicions...

Why are Sam and Fitz more concerned with the fading of the carpet in the photo than the fact it's a picture of THE TOM BAKER DOCTOR??

Gath tells the Doc all about her special relationship with Martinique on p124. So why, on p162, does he start interrogating her about it all over again ("You knew him well, then?")

Fitz has a hit-man after him. So he decides to...stay in his own hotel room. Yeah, that'll REALLY throw everyone off the scent. It takes 15 pages and much Fitz/Doc/Sam discussion before they decide that 'probably he would be better off in a room other than his own'.

Wouldn't SOMEONE get suspicious if the scammers pulled the EXACT SAME TRICK with the paintings as they pulled with the stamp collection? Surely they ought ALREADY to be under suspicion, 'finding' a rare and hitherto unsuspected collectors' item, never mind the subsequent burning down of the exhibition(s)?

OK...REALLY not getting the whole monsters-get-out-of-the-pictures process. Or any of it, actually.

'"Don't drink it!" shrieked the Doctor' - some of those paranoid guards really ought to have started getting suspicious, at this point...

'The Doctor looked apologetic. "I have a sonic screwdriver for these sorts of occasions, but I didn't think to bring it with me, I'm afraid"' - you WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Call me unduly influenced by the new series, but...the Doc doesn't have to stop and THINK about whether or not to carry the sonic screwdriver! No wonder he's so useless in the finale, just hanging round helplessly while everyone's attacked by monsters.

Phillips says he can relieve the Doctor of the chip when he's in the painting. Twelve pages later, the chip's in the painting and everyone's standing round saying it can never be used now.

If Martinique knew his pals were planning on murdering him...wouldn't scarpering and/or reporting them to the police be a more sensible precaution than painting himself?

What happened to Fitz's competition with the Doctor? It's the only fun bit of the book...immense emphasis is placed on it at the start...and then it's just never mentioned again.

Didn't Fitz get over things a bit fast? One minute his mother's insane, alien-possessed, and DEAD (or, um, whatever exactly DID happen in The Taint), the next he's happily settling down for a bit of gambling n'James-Bond-imitating, never giving her another thought in his dozens of books and several years with the Doctor. I don't want a Bernice-Summerfield-style Oedipal Complex, or a full-blown New Who-style Mourning Season, I just think the EDAs should have steered a middle course between Old Who's lack of Companion development/emotion and New Who's family obsessions.

And THIS would have been the book to just...get Fitz's filial feelings over with.

Didn't Fitz get over things a bit fast? One minute his mother's insane, alien-possessed, and DEAD (or, um, whatever exactly DID happen in The Taint), the next he's happily settling down for a bit of gambling n'James-Bond-imitating, never giving her another thought in his dozens of books and several years with the Doctor.

Well, according to Dominion, 'Fitz recalled the time after his mother's death. For a while, humour had seemed meaningless, and people, with their quirks and mannerisms that he could usually feel so superior to, were just annoying - a noise to be shut out' - all very right and proper, if totally at odds with Demontage. (Maybe there was a huge gap between Taint and Demontage in which Fitz lurked around the TARDIS sobbing? Or something?)

Didn't Fitz get over things a bit fast? One minute his mother's insane, alien-possessed, and DEAD (or, um, whatever exactly DID happen in The Taint), the next he's happily settling down for a bit of gambling n'James-Bond-imitating, never giving her another thought in his dozens of books and several years with the Doctor.

Oh, and then there's Timeless's blithe '"[My mum's] dead," Fitz told him. "But hey, she tried to kill me before she passed on, if that's any consolation."'

since when has he had super-strength? (OR can hear ultrasonics, 'way above the frequency of human hearing'?)

OK, see discussion of super-strength in Independence Day. But as for super-hearing...Bill hears a scuffling sound that the Doctor doesn't in Emancipation of the Daleks. Though Strange England also claims the Doc has super space hearing...

Almost finished at last. I have had a long delay, mainly because my roommate was cleaning the place a couple months ago and managed to misplace my copy. It finally turned up a week ago.
The roommate isn't all bad. If not for her, I might not be living with a cat as well.
In any case, I'll have my comments on this book with two or three days. Just posting now in case you were wondering what happened to me.

Almost finished at last. I have had a long delay, mainly because my roommate was cleaning the place a couple months ago and managed to misplace my copy. It finally turned up a week ago.

I'm not sure whether to curse your roommate's name or praise her for her 'accidental' attempts to spare you Demontage...

The roommate isn't all bad. If not for her, I might not be living with a cat as well. :-)

Well, in THAT case the roommate is to be WORSHIPPED.

In any case, I'll have my comments on this book with two or three days. Just posting now in case you were wondering what happened to me.

I certainly was, only narrowly restraining myself from screaming for you to get a ••••••• move on and produce more reviews because I wouldn't want anyone to think I was a CRAZY FANATIC or anything...

Well, unless the last quarter of the book completely falls apart, it's certainly not the worst Doctor Who novel I've ever read. Although it's also far from the best. I just got to the part when the Doctor discovers Sam is in the painting.

Well, unless the last quarter of the book completely falls apart, it's certainly not the worst Doctor Who novel I've ever read. Although it's also far from the best.

I seem to remember Demontage being consistently...there.

I just got to the part when the Doctor discovers Sam is in the painting.

Ah yes, THAT terribly-memorable-honest bit...

Okay, while I wouldn't place this anywhere near a top ten list of Doctor Who novels, it's not exactly one of the worst either, as I said in my previous post.

Fitz. This guy has been around for two novels now and based on those two I just can't place him among the most intelligent of Companions. Does he get better?

Typo on page 108. "A stack of books toppled over and formed a crude •••• across one passage through the mess." How does a stack of books cause a "••••?" I think it's supposed to be "dam." Or do we really give a ••••?
I see from the preview display that the word that was typoed (is typoed a word?) is being censored. You can probably figure it out from the context since I stated is was probably supposed to be "dam."

Did the Doctor seriously come to Vega to gambol for the first few chapters? This includes the seemingly pointless contest with Fitz.

So an assassin was hired to kill the Fourth Doctor and fifty years later he's still searching for him? Did I get that right?

Rather lucky that the painting Sam was put into was the only one that had the means within it to escape, wasn't it?

Oh well, on to another book now. Which I will keep away from places where my roommate will unintentionally hide it.

I just can't place him among the most intelligent of Companions. Does he get better?

Intelligence-wise...not remotely.

You just...really grow to like him for some reason.

Did the Doctor seriously come to Vega to gambol for the first few chapters?

No. He came to gamble.

Weird, but not as weird as him wagering on dinosaur fights (Memory Lane)...

This includes the seemingly pointless contest with Fitz.

Nothing seeming about its pointlessness, even THE AUTHOR just forgets about it...

Rather lucky that the painting Sam was put into was the only one that had the means within it to escape, wasn't it?

Not so lucky for EDA readers tired of Sam.

Oh well, on to another book now. Which I will keep away from places where my roommate will unintentionally hide it.

What's your latest poison?

Seventh Doctor PDA Prime Time, by Mike Tucker.

Well, it's nice and short, at least...

LOL. That doesn't sound like a glowing review.

When ploughing one's way through the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Who novels, 'short' is very nearly as good as, well, good.